Category: costs

‘A High Court Master has called on the Civil Procedure Rules Committee (CPRC) to resolve the “tension” between the need to “spell out in the eventual bill” the costs of costs budgeting and to include them in Precedent H.’

‘The Court of Appeal has backed the order of indemnity costs against a retired couple involved in a battle over access to gas and electricity meters, who “had not come to court to assist the court in resolving the dispute but to assist themselves”.’

‘The High Court has ordered well-known Formula 1 personality Eddie Jordan to pay indemnity costs after he accepted a “very historic” £15,000 part 36 offer that was still open on the eve of trial – and which was £85,000 less than he had been offered a year earlier.’

‘Claimants cannot “blow hot and cold” with qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) by terminating one conditional fee agreement (CFA) and signing a new one just to get the benefit of costs protection, the Court of Appeal has ruled.’

‘Responding to the publication today of the Review of Civil Litigation Costs: Supplemental Report – Fixed Recoverable Costs by Lord Justice Jackson,Chair of the Bar, Andrew Langdon QC, said: “Today’s review by Jackson LJ indicates that he has listened carefully to the views of the legal profession and accepted proposals from the Bar Council and others that multi track cases are so varied in character that they do not lend themselves to any rigid costs matrix, and that cost management is working better than had been supposed.”

‘Jackson LJ is still toiling away at costs issues some 8 years after his main report. The original report changed the whole way in which the civil courts go about working how much, if anything, is due from one side to another at the end of a case – budgets being one key element. The main part of this new report concerns extending fixed costs further.’

‘The impact of Brexit, the outcome of the latest Jackson costs review and taming the “monster” of e-disclosure are of critical importance if the UK is to retain its standing as the dominant legal centre.’

‘Lord Justice Jackson has today put forward his vision for extending fixed recoverable costs (FRC), but warned that it was not his job to protect the junior Bar or any other part of the profession in doing so.’

‘In a long running shareholder dispute, the claimant company sought its costs from the defendants. The defendants had made 3 Part 36 offers in respect of the claimants claim against them. The judge had determined a number of issues in a hearing in November 2016, however there were other remaining issues to be tried. The court was made aware of the fact, but NOT the content, of the offers.’

‘Who pays the costs of Special Advocates where closed material procedures are required to consider sensitive police documents in family proceedings? The police, according to Cobb J in Re R (Closed Material Procedure: Special Advocates: Funding) [2017] EWHC 1793 (Fam).’

‘In Howe v Motor Insurers’ Bureau [2017] EWCA obligation 932, Mr Howe was driving a lorry in France on 30 March 2007 when a wheel detached from a lorry in front of him. The resulting accident left him paraplegic. Neither the other vehicle nor its driver was ever traced. He submitted a claim to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and its French equivalent, but after a time he was told by the French that his claim was out of time. Consequently, he issued proceedings against the British MIB directly, seeking to enforce his rights under regulation 13 of the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centre and Compensation Body) Regulations 2003 (the regulations). That claim was struck out because it was out of time. The MIB now sought to recover its costs of defending the proceedings.’